Why is it so hard to find a true Slim Dress Shirt?

How slim is slim? That is a relative terms. There are many slim RTW shirts, some more than others. What is your size or measurements? Which ones have you tried? These answers will help people provide answers.

because it's not just 'slim', it's slim for you, and 'for you' is very specific. manufacturers are designing based on general ideal model body shapes, so your best bet is to hunt around and try on a LOT of different off the rack shirts to see if your body type matches one of the manufacturers ideal body type... otherwise, and more likely, yes, you can find something that's close OTR and then tailor it either by tapering the body and arms or adding darts, or going semi custom like Made To Measure or fully custom like Bespoke.

all that being said, a shirt is a complex garment and HOW it wears as you move is not as simple as a static perfect cut while you're standing there in front of the mirror at the tailors... I have shirts that seem slim but then feel loose, and others that look loose yet feel restricted as I go about my day.

hope that helps

Assuming your own reported measurement are correct, those are hard numbers to achieve in RTW.

I am a 15.5/36 and also have a hard time finding slim fitting shirts for a reasonable price (although the pictures you posted are ridiculously tight for my tastes). Brooks Brothers extra slim fit shirts (the USA made OCBDs in particular) fit me very well off the rack. You could buy those and get darts put in by a tailor if you want a slimmer fit.

Try one of the Ledbury slim shirts (they're an SF affiliate). The one I got is probably the best fitting shirt I own -- it has room in the chest (where my CT tailored fit are tight), which still being very slim at the waist. Their 16-slim is 16x35 by default.

 

I think they're having a slight new years sale right now too, so it might be a good time to try. I think they're still doing their referral program -- if you sign up with a referral link, you get $25 in credit. I can send you my referral link if you'd like.

I'd just go MTM - I've been using Luxire and have been very happy with their work.

you could try calvin klein x slim (x is very important)

I own several slim fit shirts from ledbury and they are not that slim when compared to my MTM shirts.  In fact, the sleeves are kind of baggy.  Nice shirts, though.

RLPL is not that slim.  Black label is slimmer. You need to have your shirts made to achieve what you are after, its that simple.

You should definitely check out Scandinavian shirt brands, here a slim fit shirt is a lot tighter than in the UK and US. One of the more famous one's is the Swedish shirt manufacturer Eton: http://etonshirts.com/en/#collection

They are sold all over the world, and are of decent quality. They can be bought online in the US from here for example: http://theclotherie.com/online-shop/eton-shirts

They also have their own online shop based in the UK: http://www.etonshirts.co.uk/
It cost a bit to ship overseas though, but if you buy a couple of shirts at once and possibly some of the items that are on sale at the moment, you might come off at an okay price anyway.

Other brands with the same kind of very slim fit shirts are Stenströms and Tiger of Sweden.
Edited by j ingevaldsson - 1/3/13 at 1:31pm

A tailor is generally your friend here - shirts can be taken in from the sides. Look for European shirts - they are cut a lot slimmer than American ones.